T-Online Uses Real-Time Taboola Data Insights for Editorial Success

Editorial teams need two things to stand out—they need to know what stories are resonating right now, and exactly how to engage that audience.

T-Online, the biggest news portal in Europe, has it figured out. They’re powered by Taboola Newsroom, their tool of choice to inform their editorial content in real-time, which is viewed by more than 28 million unique users a month.

“Taboola’s Newsroom has become an essential tool for our editorial team to understand which articles are performing for which traffic sources and how they engage with audiences,” said Arne Henkes, Director Content, Ströer Content Group.

“It’s one of the ‘always on’ tools on the screens in our Newsroom.”

Newsroom directs editorial decision makers to the headlines, thumbnails and placements that have the best chance of driving engagement in real-time. It also analyzes insights from the Taboola network’s 1.1 billion people, to see what T-Online readers are actually reading elsewhere around the web.

“The availability of the data about what is happening on our site and what is going viral on the internet in real time—from the German elections to the performance of an evergreen piece of content—means we can immediately develop and promote articles that are of interest at any given time,” Henkes said.

The ability to analyze what T-online readers are interested in, not only on their own site, but also across the web, allows editorial staff to pivot in real-time and cover and promote what will resonate with their readers.

When you invest heavily in original content, you need powerful data.

In February of this year, T-Online began using Newsroom just after their decision to invest heavily in original content.

The workflow of their everyday writers incorporates Newsroom heavily—it’s indispensable for both the editors and creators alike.

They run almost every facet of their content production with Newsroom, from programming their homepage based on engagement metrics, to constantly A/B testing images and headlines all while viewing recommendations based on social media trends.

The platform goes beyond written content, and also makes recommendations to T-Online for video content, where opportunities are identified.

Newsroom not only looks forward, but tracks the performance of your current content, alerting users as to whether or not engagement is high or low with a certain piece, so editorial staff knows every piece of content on their site is optimized to its fullest potential.

“Big will become bigger, and data is becoming an essential path to empower editorial staff with what they need to drive the next revolution for publisher’s future,” said Adam Singolda, Taboola CEO and Founder.

“We are thrilled to work with Arne, Marc and the T-Online team, and be part of their journey to drive massive growth for journalism in Germany and Europe.”

With over 50 news editors using Newsroom at T-Online, the brand is a stellar example of a data-driven news operation. They use Newsroom to score article quality and engagement, allowing them to determine what content to cover in further depth depending on how they want their audience to engage.

T-Online has grown with the power of data—Taboola Newsroom has given their editorial team the flexibility they needed to reach their audiences, wherever they are, in real-time.